


Bruce Banner: Actual Fluff Mop

by Solstarin



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 23:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9630206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solstarin/pseuds/Solstarin
Summary: Just a little thing I had lying around. Also I wanted an excuse to use this title.magical-Y/N-replace-thing http://nerddface.tumblr.com/post/132198168358/bruce-banner-actual-fluff-mop





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I had lying around. Also I wanted an excuse to use this title.
> 
> magical-Y/N-replace-thing http://nerddface.tumblr.com/post/132198168358/bruce-banner-actual-fluff-mop

Bruce Banner was not one to strike up conversation on a mere whim. He was introverted, shy, kept to himself. Talking to strangers took weeks of meticulous planning, rehearsing, and intense courage building.

These exercises nearly tripled when it came to a girl as pretty as _her_.

That was what led him to sitting in the lab, gazing at his distracted lab-mate as she focused deeply on the work in front of her. Her mouth moved slightly, jaw tensing and relaxing, a tell-tale sign of one who bites her tongue. Bruce had noticed it before, but as of yet he hadn't said anything. He hadn't said much of anything at all to her, for that matter. She looked young-- nowhere past her late twenties to mid thirties. She introduced herself as Doctor Y/N L/N,  from a biotech firm in California, working on assignment the Director had placed her on. Since then, other than the occasional inquiry of where a tool was or what the answer to an equation she was having trouble with was, he hadn't spoken a word to her. They worked in silence, save for the clink of glass, scratching of pencils and erasers on paper, tapping of fingers on keyboard keys or touch-screens, the shuffle of feet against the floor --his feet, usually; the girl moved practically in silence-- and the whirring and humming of the machines around them. Y/N always had a wireless earbud in her left ear, if not in both, and her phone in her pocket, though he didn't know what she listened to. Of course it had only been four weeks and Bruce knew the assignment Fury gave her would require her full attention all hours she was in the lab.

She looked even prettier than usual today. Her hair had obviously been trimmed the day prior, as it looked neat and almost unnaturally shiny as it fell around her face. The portion of it that was dyed an almost lilac purple- her bangs- swept across her forehead and rested on the rim of her square glasses. On some days, her starlit eyes churned like waves, and on days like this one, they looked soft and wispy, like the mist that settled over the ocean beneath the helicarrier. Bruce would sometimes watch it, on clear days, through the massive window of the lab behind the table where he worked. Before she donned her lab coat this morning, the black tank top she wore allowed Bruce a good look at her slender but toned upper back, shoulders, and arms. He still pondered that- she looked far too in shape for a simple scientist.

Maybe today he'd ask her about it.

 _Maybe_.

And with that, he launched into an inward battle with himself on whether or not he should risk it. What if he totally fucked up and made himself look like an idiot? What if he didn't? What if she brushed him off? What if she didn't? What if-

"Hey Bruce?" Her soft voice shut up his inner conflict, yanking him back to the lab. It took him a few seconds to register what she had said.

"Yeah?" _She asked for him, right?_

"You looked distressed, I was kinda worried."

 _Oh, God_. He thought he was going to faint right there over his stoichiometry. Her eyes roved over his face with a friendly concern, and she was leaning over her table a little, her head just barely tilted to the side, giving her normally symmetrical hairline an angle and letting her sideswept purple bangs fall over one eye. She held a micropipette in her left hand, her delicate thumb hovering over the release. Her right hand was curled around a test tube. Her soft lips were parted slightly in a sympathetic and kind smile.

"Oh... Thanks." He averted his eyes, shuffling the things on his table to occupy his hands. He contemplated asking her to go to that little coffee shop on the corner of the block past the Tower for brunch- he knew she'd been working long and hard these few weeks, and she deserved a break, if the glances he stole of her work were telling him what he thought they were telling him. But, no.... But...

He heard a breathless laugh from Y/N's table and lifted his eyes again to see her back at her work, carefully pipetting liquid into a test tube and setting it down in a stand, an amused smile on her lips.

“Out with it, Doctor Banner. I still have DNA to sequence.”

Bruce couldn’t meet her eyes. He adjusted his glasses, fiddled with the hem of his button-up, and asked quietly,

"I- I was wondering if, uh, you wanted to, um, go out for lunch or something?"

He swore his heart was going to leap out of his chest as she agreed. A smile warmed her gorgeous face and Bruce's heart.

"Actually, I think I can put this down right now while let the machines do their thing," she added, glancing over her table. "I just need to put this in the sequencer."

True to her word, she gathered a small rack of test tubes and inputted them into their correct slots and pushed a few buttons. Then she scribbled something down on a pad and shrugged off her lab coat. She exchanged it for her casual coat, and glanced back at Bruce, who hadn’t moved (perhaps in shock, because _she said yes!!_ ). Another smile graced her features.

“Coming? I don’t know this city nearly as well as you.”

Snapped from his little moment, Bruce let out an amused breath. “Believe me, I hardly know it at all.” He replaced his own coat and she hooked her hand to his arm as they exited the lab and headed towards the elevator.

“Well, then, Doctor, we’ll just explore it together, won’t we?”

Bruce chuckled-- something he hadn’t done in a while. He looked forward to doing it more, and the woman beside him seemed to enjoy it just as much. He had a feeling today would be a good one.

Yeah, this was a good decision.


End file.
